Your main character was travelling the world to restore the crystal’s power, fighting bad guys and helping the weak and downtrodden in the most repetitive and narrow bit of storytelling in all of the FF brand. Enter Mystic Quest.Įverything about Mystic Quest was so incredibly simple it was almost silly. So Squaresoft, even though they were exporting their flagship Final Fantasy games stateside in edited and redacted fashion, decided they were going to custom make an RPG just for us. Japanese developers assumed it was because their games were too complex for us. Over here in the US, we still had a bit of a tepid, though promising, relationship with them. The early 90’s was a pretty good time for JRPG’s, especially if you were in Japan, where they were being developed and produced by the dozens. The nostalgia factor played a big part in what I determined was my favorite soundtrack: the bombastic, chiptune, power rock collection that is Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest’s auditory onslaught. Final Fantasy 4’s Golbez almost always entered a scene with accompanied music reminiscent of a funeral march it’s tall, droning organs and deep, deliberate bass said everything you needed to know about the character before the character himself said anything at all. I don’t remember many lines of dialogue from the 7th Saga, but I absolutely remember the boss battle theme, because I remember it evoking that sense of urgency needed for the challenge in front of me. In this grand reflection into my relationship with video game music, I began to really realize just how much of my memories of older games consisted of how it sounded. As hearing “Say it Ain’t So” or “Black Grease” can conjure up memories of playing these games, I don’t really associate these songs with gaming a wall that prevents me from really considering any heavily licensed soundtrack as my favorite. Similarly, Spec Ops: The Line’s soundtrack was spotted with grungy psychedelic rock the like of The Black Angels or Hendrix, two other faithful standbys in my MP3 player. Rock Band’s tracklist was chock full of songs that were already on my iPod or on the radio, so there’s an instant relationship with the music there. I had to really look into what it was about the soundtracks I liked that really made drew me in. So when I was tasked to choose my favorite game soundtrack, it took some soul searching. I can appreciate it’s presence when in particular moments during the actual playing of the game, but as a stand alone entity, I almost always downplay it. In all fairness, a younger Jarrett didn’t have much stake in any music – video game, radio, or otherwise.Įven to this day, unless a soundtrack is particularly different or interesting, I treat it as a second hand feature. Maybe I was a duller instrument back then, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. I would look to my peers (most of which loved listening to game soundtracks more than playing the actual games) in bewilderment, because I never had that sort of connection in games besides playing them. I didn’t always appreciate game music, especially at a young age. Nothing sets the scene of a ominously dark cavern full of untold riches and horrors like the right sound design. Completely silent games died with MUDs made in MS-DOS, and that’s probably for the better. Even a game with very little story or very sparse gameplay usually has sound effects and a score. There are few elements to a game more important than the way it sounds.
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